


Synthesis

by Roadsterguy



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Artificial Intelligence, Fish, Future Fic, Gen, Genetics, Loneliness, Loss, M/M, Optimism, Other, Resurrection, semen - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:48:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25899946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roadsterguy/pseuds/Roadsterguy
Summary: I'm taking quarantine time to catch up on games, and I loved playing the Mass Effect trilogy.  I wanted to write a little vignette - Shepard is the king of Not Really Dying Permanently, so why not come up with a way for him to survive the synthesis of organic and synthetic life?  With bonus Kaidan, my favorite Canadian cinnamon roll.
Relationships: Kaidan Alenko/Male Shepard
Kudos: 13





	Synthesis

"Kaidan." The voice was melodic, calm, perfectly smooth.

"Yes, ELLI?" Kaiden looked up from his desk. From a young age, he had never felt good when people treated robots like they weren't alive and feeling. They acted like people, after all, shouldn't you treat them like people? If not, maybe you'd start treating _people_ like they weren't people, and that wasn't right at all. Lead to all kinds of bad things, didn't it. But now that every robot was an organic/synthetic AI - as alive as him, by any measure - pretty much _everyone_ treated them like people. It was really a nice thing, he considered. Especially to come out of such a painful time.

"It's Shepard." Her glowing eyes looked down at him warmly.

Kaidan froze, his fingers twitching around the stylus. It had been almost two years since all that bad stuff had happened. Since the memorial. He should be used to that name by now. He should be able to hear it without _feeling_ everything again - the explosions, the pain, the blood, the last time he saw the man... "What about Shepard?" he managed, the stylus clattering quietly to the desk.

"No, I mean," she stepped closer, looking down at him calmly, "it's _Shepard_. It took a bit of time for the disparate DNA/RNA-form data to restructure in a coherent fashion."

"Wait, wait, are you telling me," Kaidan sat back, his head spinning, "that he's... like, still out there, and he's... taken over you?" This was a hell of a thing to blindside a guy with on a Thursday afternoon.

"Not," she frowned slightly, a delicate motion of her synthetic lips and forehead, informed by the human data she had merged with. A Turian AI would have twitched their mandibles. "Not exactly. I am accessing the gestalt of his knowledge and memories." She smiled gently. "He was a fair bit synthetic, maybe at least as much as organic, by the end. I think he finds the electronic brains easier to interface with."

"So you're..." Kaidan stood, feeling weak in the knees. Light-headed. _Shepard_. He had mourned the man... _again_... "Him."

"Not exactly," she repeated. "It's a little difficult to explain the concept to an organic brain. But - when he contributed his DNA, his epigenetics, his message and protein, all that allowed him to fully integrate with his synthetics, it became embedded deeply in the code of every organic/synthetic hybrid. I can access the sum total of his knowledge and memories. His consciousness, is perhaps the best approximation."

"Shepard." Something inside of him warmed. Had he suspected? Hoped? The information was settling into him like the last piece in a frustrating puzzle, the one that made it all clear. Funny, how it didn't matter what Shepard looked like. A synthetic female body, sure, whatever. It just mattered that it was _him_. Kaidan reached out to touch ELLI's face.

"He misses you greatly, Kaidan, and is sorry he could not return in a biological form to you. He," she paused in the electronic equivalent of thought, "wishes to know how you are, what you have been doing."

She was not leaning into his touch, but not leaning away from it, either. Kaidan pulled away with difficulty. So she was _channeling_ Shepard? Like one of those mediums, like in that old movie with the pottery, but real? "You've got access to him - doesn't he know it all from _you_?"

"His consciousness is tentative. He is still adjusting to this new form of existence. He knows and cares for you, he understands you; it is easier for him to absorb information from you. What you say now to me, he... for lack of a better term, hears."

Kaidan turned, looking at the fish tank that took up a whole wall of the cabin. Shepard had never been one for ostentation or excess possessions; that tank had been a rare extravagance. That goofy eel had out-survived half the galaxy - including Shepard... but yeah, there was something to be said for sitting and watching it twine its way among the kelp, watching the jellyfish gently pouf their way around, letting his thoughts run freely as he did. "Well, I'm in control of the Normandy, for now. Funny, isn't it. No wars or anything, everyone's really nice and peaceful, so we're doing a lot of science. Liara converted all of the military space on this ship to labs, the place is just chock full of scientists now. Garrus doesn't know what to do with himself. He's seeing this Asari paleontologist, she's really sweet."

"And you?" The voice sounded... a little different. A little more like...

"Me? I'm feeling kinda married to the ship, these days. Everyone's so familiar. Like family. I guess you... I guess Shepard felt some of that? No family of his own, after all." He loved to spend time with the crew, chatting with them, learning their personal problems, helping out. Like a dad. Or a big brother. "I don't get the migraines, ever since the synthesis." The eel twined around a frond. "Never knew how nice it was, just to go for a week without having to lie down in the dark and whimper. Wish I could have been there for y... for Shepard like that."

Strong metal arms slid around him, in a gesture that shouldn't be so familiar, with how infrequently they had done it. Well, when had death ever slowed Shepard down? Kaidan leaned back into them. "Miss you lots," he sighed. "This place feels like home. Like a home I coulda built with you."

"I hope you can love again." The cadence of it. _That's_ what sounded different. Not ELLI.

"I'll give it a try. I promise." Kaidan straightened reluctantly. "Uh, I don't want to take too much of your time, ma'am..." It wouldn't be good to sink too much into this. Would it?

"Not at all." This was definitely ELLI again. "It is some effort to pull together this consciousness, at the moment. It might go more easily with time, but I am pleased to be able to facilitate this meeting when possible. I am, after all," she smiled, "built to please."

Kaidan found himself grinning back. No matter what a robot was built for, after the synthesis, they all had very distinct personalities. ELLI, while sweet, was also quite mischievous. "I won't intrude on your time too much, ma'am."

"I have duties on the forward laboratory deck. Let me know if you need anything, Major." She turned to leave.

"Uh, wait, one more thing?" She paused. Kaidan swallowed. "Uh... is there any chance, in the future, you know, after I... after I'm gone, that I could be with him again?"

"That is difficult to determine. I hesitate even to speculate, given the many unknowns involved. I will note one potentially relevant datum - when Shepard made his contribution, his sacrifice - some of your genetic material was present, as well."

"Oh." Kaidan felt his face heat. " _Oh_."

"So bear that in mind." That smile she flashed over her shoulder was definitely mischievous. "Good day, Major."

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Garrus of Palaven](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26395954) by [Kahvi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kahvi/pseuds/Kahvi)




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